A "typical" day routine of Harvard student?

<p>Could anyone give me an example of student's day routine at Harvard? I know each student there has his/her own routine, so I'm just asking for EXAMPLE.
Also, what should high school student do during his/her high school carrer so he/she can have a pretty good change of getting into Ivy school, like Harvard or any other.
Any response appreciated.
Thank you.</p>

<p>You wake up in the morning to the sounds of trumpets acknowledging how special you are. As you walk out of your dorm room, you give a quick wave to the common, Non-Harvard people on the way to class, maybe tossing them some loose change or a piece of advice about the SAT IIs.</p>

<p>Your professor reminds you at the beginning of class how fantastic he is, then teaches material that everyone in the classroom finds easy. Everyone scores perfectly on all the tests- that’s why they got into Harvard.</p>

<p>After classes, you might run into Bill Gates, Natalie Portman, or Conan O’Brien around the campus- after all, these celebrated alumni have nothing better to do than spend all their time at the school. My roommate says he saw W.E.B. DuBois at Urban Outfitters once, but I think he might be lying.</p>

<p>You hang around with other students in the evening, talking about the things that Harvard students are interested in- differential geometry, Somerset Maugham, postmodern surrealism, computational economics… The only problems with the conversations is that everyone already knows everything, so there isn’t much to discuss. Sometimes, therefore, the debates just degrade into games of fox-hunting and discus throwing (after all, everyone who goes to Harvard is both rich and an Olympic athlete).</p>

<p>At the end of the day, just to relax, you might grab your Harvard acceptance letter and head into Boston. After all, a Harvard acceptance letter gets you into any club or party in Boston, lets you buy alcohol in bars whatever age you are, and can be used to get out of speeding tickets and most misdemeanors.</p>

<p>The fact that John Adams went here has an impact on your everyday life, as does the school’s age and the size of the its endowment. In particular, having such a large library makes a huge difference! Harvard’s 14 million volumes, most of which are held elsewhere in the country or around the world, offers you SO much more than Yale’s 9.9 million volumes or Columbia’s PATHETIC 6.9 million volumes. Can you imagine having only 7 million books at your school’s library? You’d probably run out of things to read by junior year!</p>

<p>At the end of the day, you curl up in your luxurious dorm room that only Harvard could provide, fully appreciating the advantages that Harvard gives you…</p>

<p>The truth? IT’S JUST LIKE ANY OTHER SCHOOL! You have classes, you have homework, you have friends, you go to parties, you eat junk food, you date, you drink, you act irresponsibly every once in a while just to see how it feels. You go to the extracurriculars you like, you take the classes that interest you, and you graduate after four years having hopefully learned something.</p>

<p>Do you really want to know my day? I finished my Physics problem set early this morning before rushing to a Life Sciences lecture, followed by a Physics lecture. I had pretty bad pizza for lunch at the cafe, then did some work before going to Expository Writing in the afternoon. I went home and hung out on the computer before taking a long nap, then woke up to get to my Life Sciences section a little late (sections are once a week and taught by TFs). We did some work in the lab, then I came back to my dorm to do my math homework, talk to the people across the hall, and then visit collegeconfidential before doing my Life Sci problem set. Overall, it was actually a busy day.</p>

<p>Was that really all that enlightening? No! I just went to classes, did some work, and hung out and had some fun. IT’S A SCHOOL! IT’S NOT A METAPHOR ABOUT PERFECTION AND ACHIEVEMENT OR SOMETHING!</p>

<p>Sorry- I’m just tired of the perception that Harvard offers a fundamentally different experience than most other selective colleges. It’s absolutely true that you can meet brilliant and wonderful people here, that the classes are usually taught by (in my opinion) great and engaging professors, and that the campus and location are fantastic. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a fundamentally different kind of college. Harvard’s not perfect, and it’s not even all that special. So keep a sense of perspective. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/269083-day-life.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/269083-day-life.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I thought I recognized this…</p>

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<p>This literally made me laugh out loud :D</p>

<p>I’ll answer the question:</p>

<p>Each day of my schedule is fundamentally different so I do not have anything remotely close to a daily routine but I will provide a time breakdown of an ordinary Tuesday.</p>

<p>9:48 A.M. – Wake up, very swift morning routine</p>

<p>10:00–11:00 – Spanish Class</p>

<p>11:00–11:10 – Eat; the dining hall is closed during this time and I am far too lethargic to wake up sufficiently early before my first class so I simply eat in my room (I have a refrigerator stocked with items that I seize every evening from the dining hall)</p>

<p>11:10 A.M.–1:00 P.M. – Read and write emails; perhaps I will complete a bit of schoolwork</p>

<p>1:00–2:30 – Life Science lecture</p>

<p>2:40–4:00 – Sleep</p>

<p>4:10–5:30 – Piano Practice</p>

<p>5:45–6:45 – Personal Exercise</p>

<p>7:00–7:30 – Eat</p>

<p>7:40–9:30 – Emails and other Internet activities; Read the school newspaper; Perhaps a bit of socializing; Procrastinating</p>

<p>9:30–9:45 – Speak with family via telephone</p>

<p>9:45 P.M.–6:00 A.M. – Schoolwork, interspersed with snacks, Internet meanderings, and other essential non-academic activities</p>

<p>6:00–9:48 – Sleep</p>

<p>ok, forgive my possible naivete, but is that a normal college event to stay awake from 10 in the night to 6 in the morning or is that something unique to you mifune. I know in college you can do what you want, but I don’t see myself only getting 5 hours of sleep a day, I have done that a few times this year in high school and it sucks.</p>

<p>My daughter attributes part of her success at H to maintaining a schedule that ensures she gets 7+ hours of sleep every night. But you will find students at all colleges keeping a variety of schedules.</p>

<p>^^No, but a lot of people in college do stay up late. (Not that late though.)</p>

<p>Because most people only have two, three classes a day and most of the work is to be done outside of class, there is a lot of freedom in how you want to organize your day. I usually wake up around ten to head to my first class, which is either at ten or eleven, then go to lunch, attend another class or two in the afternoon, then for the rest of the time I’ve either doing homework, participating in one of my extracurriculars, or hanging out with friends.</p>

<p>I would suspect that the average bedtime here is something around 3 A.M. during the school week. I actually receive a bit more sleep here, on average, than I did in high school. However, my sleeping patterns fluctuate depending on the amount of obligatory work I have. I usually begin moderate-sized papers the night before they are due since I produce my best work under a moderate degree of time pressure, so I will usually stay up for the night and sleep sometime later in the afternoon to provide myself with the most time possible. But I nearly always receive around five hours of sleep during the school week and perhaps six or seven on the weekends.</p>

<p>^I guess you would have to sleep a bit more in college than in high school, because unlike in high school, you really on your own in college–no one’s going to tell you to get up and go eat or go to class and you really need an organized head to sort of get through each day.</p>

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<p>Ditto on all counts.</p>

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<p>I suppose one could make a reasonable case on how it is possible to receive seven or eight hours of sleep per night, but I personally could not do so while adequately completing each day’s necessities. </p>

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<p>I recall reading one of your posts from this past June stating that you “slack off like a pro.” I am very much that way with regard to paper writing, but rather proactive when it comes to other assignments.</p>

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<p>Oh, what piece(s) are you working on?</p>

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<p>Valse, Op. 69, No. 2 / Chopin</p>

<p>Prelude, Op. 32, No. 2 / Rachmaninoff </p>

<p>Hungarian Rhapsody / Liszt</p>

<p>Have you worked on any of these selections previously?</p>

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<p>Which one? They tend to be quite exciting.</p>

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<p>No, although at one point I considered playing that Chopin waltz but elected for his Waltz in E minor; check YouTube for a lively performance of it by Kissin.</p>

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<p>It is not identified in my book, but I believe No. 2, his most popular.</p>

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<p>Yes, I know the video you happen to be referencing (the one where he leaves the concert hall, signs autographs, and departs). Also, the highest rated comment on that video is quite humorous.</p>

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<p>Have you heard Volodos play the Horowitz transcription of that piece?</p>

<p>(And apologies to the OP for diverting the topic. :))</p>

<p>Yes, I have listened to three separate recordings, performed by Volodos, Horowitz, and Rachmaninoff (recorded in 1919).</p>

<p>In turn, what pieces are you working on at the moment?</p>

<p>^This is so pretentious that I am literally just getting diarrhea</p>

<p>I’m sorry you feel that way Basajaun. To me, this is a good example of what people mean about the passion for your ECs that is needed to be a good candidate to get into Harvard.</p>